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Severus would like to be clear that he is only here for the pay.
…and maybe also because his best friend, Lily Evans, had strong-armed him into getting the same summer job that she had done the year prior. She’d used the rapport she had with the owner to get him a recommendation and, one short interview later, they were set to be coworkers.
So, here they were, walking to Stark’s Sunshine Daycare—well, Lily had him by the arm, dragging him along—preparing to get ready for their first shift this summer.
“I don’t like children,” says Severus, for the fourth time.
“I know,” says Lily, who is thoroughly exasperated by him at this point.
“This is going to be a disaster.”
“So you keep saying.”
“I should have just taken the library position like last summer.”
Lily nods absently and rolls her eyes. “Mhm.”
They both know his complaints are far from serious. Severus had hated working at the library. Parts of the job were fine—Severus didn’t mind stocking the shelves or reorganizing returned books—but conversing with people who stubbornly insisted they needed to borrow a book that was clearly checked out already was grating, and there was only so much Severus could take before snapping.
Besides, the library paid him minimum wage, and Stark’s Daycare—well. Their pay was about as generous as the owner was wealthy. It was a decent sum of money, and his aversion to children aside, Severus would be a fool to refuse.
Still, just to be petulant, he adds, “I deserve a raise.”
Lily gives him a side-glance that clearly says: We haven’t even started yet, you drama queen.
“I do,” he insists.
“Uh-huh.”
***
It’s 6:32 AM when they finally reach Stark’s Sunshine Daycare.
There’s a red-haired woman sitting at the front desk who smiles at them upon their entrance. Severus recognizes her immediately. She’s the same person who had interviewed him before hiring: Pepper Potts.
“Hi Pepper!” greets Lily.
“Lily Evans,” the woman returns. “Glad to have you back here again.”
Lily shoulders him. “Say hi, Sev.”
“Miss Potts.”
She huffs. “As I told you before, Pepper is fine.”
Severus tips his head in acknowledgement and Pepper pulls out some papers from behind her desk, sliding them over. “Here’s the new roster. The kids should be arriving in about an hour, so there’s still some time to set up.”
Lily picks them up and scans the page. She frowns slightly.
Pepper answers her unasked question. “It’s a different batch of kids than last time.”
“I was hoping to see a few of them again,” Lily sighs. “But that’s understandable.”
Severus leans over to read the page over Lily’s shoulder. It’s a small class of seven. To his surprise, he actually recognizes one of the names. Draco Malfoy.
“I think that’s Lucius’s son,” he comments.
Lily makes a face. “You still talk with him?”
“Occasionally,” Severus shrugs. “He keeps inviting me to those fancy galas.”
“Ah. Free food.”
“Free food,” he agrees.
Lily turns back to the list. “There’s also a Harry Potter here. Do you think…?”
“Oh,” Pepper interjects. “If you haven’t already been informed, there’s one more high-schooler that we hired this summer—I believe he attends the same school you two do. James Potter.”
“James Potter,” Lily repeats.
“Oh, joy,” he deadpans.
If Pepper notices the sudden tension, and Severus suspects she does, she doesn’t comment on it. Severus and Lily share a look. They’re going to need to work with James Potter for the entire summer. He’s not looking forward to it.
***
When James walks through the door, he finds that Lily Evans and Severus Snape are already there. He hadn’t been informed that he’d be working with anyone he knew…but he doesn’t mind all that much. About working with Lily, anyways. Having to work with Snape is—eh. He’d rather not, but he’s here now, he guesses. Too late to back out.
“Potter,” Lily greets. “You’re here…early.”
He gives her his best smile. “Yeah! I just…wanted to get a headstart on the day, y’know?”
The clock reads 7:28 AM.
“Yes, two minutes before the daycare officially opens. How…responsible of you,” Snape says dryly. “Nevermind that you should have been here forty-five minutes ago to help with the set-up.”
James looks past them at the nicely set of playrooms. All the toys are in bins. Children’s books are stocked into neat, color-coded shelves. There’s a circular rug in the center of it all where he’s sure most of the kids will be gathering up for play, and a table to the side. Next to it is a cabinet labeled ‘Arts and Crafts’. Cute.
“It looks like you did a great job on it without me.”
“Thank you,” Lily says curtly.
Snape looks like he wants to say something, but a look from Lily keeps his mouth shut. Snape settles for glaring. James smirks.
“Well,” says James, responsibly ignoring Snape to give Lily a smile. “Since we’re going to be working together for the rest of summer, you should call me James. I insist.” Which also means he’s going to be working the entire summer with Snape. Gross.
Lily blinks at him. The polite smile on her face is frozen. It reminds him of the way Snape’s scowl can just stick there, unchanging. James throws that thought away. He doesn’t want to be thinking of Snape.
“...I’ll keep that in mind, Potter,” she says.
James gives her another charming smile.
“Good! Great. I’m great with kids.”
“You’ve worked with them before?”
“Totally. I mean, not like this. But I’ve babysat my cousin a few times, so I know what kids like.”
Snape scoffs. Do you? are his unsaid words.
More than you, is James’s unsaid response. A spark of competition ignites in his chest. He is better than Snape. He’ll prove it.
“That’s good. The plan for today is fairly lax,” Lily informs him. “We’re going to be starting off with some free play to get the kids settled in—let them explore and get comfortable here. After that, storytime, then snacks.”
“Sounds like a plan. What are we doing right now?”
“Sev and I are going to greet the children at the front desk.”
Before James can say ‘Is that a good idea?’ because Snape’s ugly mug being the first thing the kids see might dampen the mood, Lily adds, “You stay over by the play area. Familiarize yourself with—everything. We’ll direct the kids over there as they arrive.”
James doesn’t protest.
That plan actually works out great for him. He gets to be the fun one, showing the kids all the toys. “Alright, I’ll get to it.”
He’d be the favorite easily.
***
7:33 AM. Lily took a deep breath.
She stood at the entrance in anticipation. No cars had entered the parking lot yet.
“There’s no need to be so nervous, Lils.”
“Not nervous,” she snaps. Sev raises an eyebrow at her. “Sorry, sorry. Okay—maybe a little nervous.”
“You did this last year,” he reminds her.
“But these are new kids! I just want to make a good impression.”
“Exactly, they are children. Children are impressed by anything. They have low standards and no understanding of the world.”
“Sev.” Lily means to sound scolding, but it comes out fondly exasperated. Sev has the audacity to huff a laugh at her. Huff a laugh! At her! Well, hmph to him too.
“Really, Lils? ‘Hmph to me, too’?” Sev repeats.
He’s teasing. Lily rolls her eyes. “Shush, you.”
Then, she turns her face away.
She hadn’t meant to mutter that loud enough for him to hear.
“Oh! Someone’s coming!”
Lily rapidly taps Sev’s arm to get his attention.
“I can see that. Thank you, Lily.”
A blue car had just driven in. A woman steps out once parked, helping a little boy with messy black hair and circular glasses out of the backseat.
“Enough with the sarcasm. Be nice.”
“I am always nice.”
“Riiight. Severus Snape: nicest person at Hogwarts.”
“Must you mock me, Lils?”
“Well, you—oh, they’re almost at the door! Where’s the roster?”
She looks back at the desk, but it’s no longer there. Did Pepper take it away?
Sev holds it up. “Right here.”
“Oh, good.” She snatches it quickly.
“And a pen,” says Sev, and hands her that too.
Just in time; the bell above the door jingles as the woman and her son enter.
“Hello! Welcome! You must be Harry Potter,” says Lily, dropping down to the boy’s level. Harry nods shyly, glancing up at his mum, who gives him an encouraging smile. “I’m Miss Lily, and this is Mr Sev—”
“Snape,” corrects Sev.
“—and we have some fun planned for today. Are you excited?”
It draws a smile out of Harry. He nods.
“Alright, go follow Mr Sev that way, okay?”
“Okay!”
Sev shoots her a glare, but doesn’t protest ‘Mr Sev’ this time.
Once Harry is being guided away, she holds the roster to Mrs Potter. “Sign right here please.” Mrs Potter does so. “Thank you! We’ll see you back here this afternoon.”
“James!” she hears Harry shout as Sev walks back to her.
Huh. So Harry is related to James Potter.
***
When the next car pulls up, Lily smiles at Severus.
“Do you want to do this next one?”
She blinks imploringly at him, making it clear that his answer should be yes.
He shakes his head. “I’m not good with kids, you do it.”
“It’s not that hard, you’re not even really talking to the kids, just get the parents’ signature, okay?”
Severus grumbled, not happy about having to talk with people, the audacity of Lily Marie Evans to make him talk to people!
Severus scans the roster. “Michelle Jones?”
“It’s MJ!” the little girl huffs at him.
“Of course,” says Severus.
Lily’s smile doesn’t leave her face as she elbows him in the side.
Her message is clear: Be nice, Sev. Or else.
Severus’s expression doesn’t twitch when MJ snickers at the interaction between the two of them, but he knows that Lily knows he’s received the message.
***
When the next car pulls in, Sev looks at Lily. “It’s Draco. This one is Draco Malfoy, have you met his father?”
“Met him? Yeah. He’s a real piece of work. I hope this…Draco, isn’t as bad. That would be a nightmare.”
“Not at all, he’s a sweetheart.”
Lucius Malfoy walked out of his car, prim as always, and walked out with his equally-blonde son.
“Severus.” Malfoy inclines his head slightly at him.
“Lucius.”
Malfoy doesn’t acknowledge Lily.
Arsehole, she thinks at him, and valiantly keeps her pleasant smile on her face all the while.
“Good morning, Mr Malfoy,” she says, voice clipped.
His eyes slide over to her. “Miss Evans, hello.”
“Hello, Draco,” Sev says, his tone unusually gentle.
Draco’s demeanor gets noticeably more enthusiastic. “Hi!”
Lucius Malfoy signs Draco in and leaves with the instructions for Draco to “behave himself.” Draco nods very seriously, but once his father is out the door, he’s back to bouncing on his feet and he easily follows Sev to the play area to join the others.
***
Next is Hermione Granger, a curious little girl who seemed to be always staring at one thing or another, as if she was trying to figure out how it works. She quietly got out of the car, reaching back through the door to pull out a small, yet overpacked, backpack. Her mother helps her put it on before they head to the door.
“Hi there!” Lily greets warmly, as they enter. “You must be Hermione Granger.”
She nods, tilting her head and observing Lily with wide eyes. “Are you Miss Lily?”
“I am! And this is Mr Sev—” Lily gestures to him, and Sev doesn’t even bother correcting her this time. Win! “Are you excited for today?”
Hermione hesitates, glancing back to her mum. Mrs Granger gives her an encouraging nod, and Hermione manages a small, tentative smile. “I think so.”
Lily offers her most reassuring smile. “It’s okay to be a little nervous, but I promise you’ll have a great time. Mr Sev will show you where to put your things, and then you can meet some of the others. How does that sound?”
Hermione doesn’t reply, but her nod looks less nervous. She extends a hand, and Sev—after a quick, exasperated glance at Lily—takes it, gently guiding her to the play area. Lily sorts out the signature with Mrs Granger as they do so, explaining what time she needs to be back to pick-up her daughter.
“Have a good day, Hermione!” calls Mrs Granger, once they finish.
Hermione looks back with a smile, waving at her mum as she leaves.
***
With Hermione settled, Sev returns to the entrance just as another car pulls in. This time, two boys tumble out of the car—one with brown hair and a bright smile, and another with darker hair. An older woman steps out of the car, and corrals them towards the daycare door.
Immediately, the boys take off running.
Sev opens the door as Lily steps out to intercept them. The woman looks fondly exasperated at their antics.
“Ned!” the brown-haired boy shouts after his friend. Lily doesn’t remember a ‘Ned’ on the roster, and a quick skim shows the same, but she assumes it’s likely a nickname. “Watch out!”
But ‘Ned’ doesn’t realize what the other boy is warning him about—having turned back to look at the other boy, still dashing forward—until he runs right into Sev’s legs. He stumbles back and looks up at Sev with wide eyes. “Um…”
Sev, being Sev, doesn’t exactly help with the situation.
Well, Sev doesn’t say anything, but Ned looks frozen in terror. His friend catches up to him and steps in front of him like Sev is going to attack him. Sev just turns to her with an exasperated expression, like it’s her fault that he’s scaring the children. She doesn’t stick her tongue out at him, because they’re on the clock and she’s mature, but Sev rolls his eyes and huffs at her anyway.
“Hello,” says Lily, as the boys help each other up. “Who might you two be?”
“I’m Peter!” introduces the brown-haired boy, as the woman catches up with them. “And this is my best friend, Ned!”
“Peter Parker and Edward Leeds,” the woman tells her.
Sev takes over with getting her to sign the roster, while Lily turns her attention to the boys. “Are you excited for today?”
“Yeah!” the boys chorus, their excitement contagious.
“Great! Why don’t you follow Mr Sev inside, and we can get started soon?”
“Okay!”
“Bye Lola!”
Sev hands the roster back to her, looking disgruntled that he’s once again been relegated to guiding the kids to Potter.
You handle the last one, he mouths at her.
Lily just shrugs, then laughs when he glares at her.
***
Another car pulls in shortly after, with three redheads in tow.
7:48AM—they were running a bit late, but it wasn’t too big of a deal. Lily glances back at where the rest of the kids are, and it seemed as though Potter and Sev were wrapped in some kind of competition. They kept glaring at each other over the kids’ heads, but were pulling out different toys and leading them to different stations to keep them all entertained.
Sev caught her eye and shot her a look that said: Why am I here, just to suffer?
Lily sent back a beatific smile. Cope.
She turns her attention back to the door at the jingle of the bell. The man offers her an apologetic smile, ushering his son forward. The little girl stayed with him, clutching her father’s hand.
“Good morning!” Lily greets. “You must be Ronald Weasley.”
“It’s just Ron,” the boy pouts, cheeks puffing out. “And that’s Ginny.”
“Arthur,” says the man, extending his free hand for Lily to shake. “I’m just leaving Ron today.”
“That sounds lovely. If you could sign right here—” Lily offers the roster to him, and he does so. “—thank you! Have a good day, Arthur. I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
Arthur bids his son goodbye and Lily helps guide him inside. She doesn’t have to do much, considering he barely makes it past the gate by the front desk before he shouts “Harry!” and runs for his friend.
She heads over to Sev. “That’s everyone. Ready to get started with the day?”
“No.”
“That’s the spirit!”
Sev lets out an exaggerated, obviously fake sigh.
Lily grins wider.
***
This is easy, thinks James.
He’s babysat Harry enough times to know what kids like, and this is the same, but with more kids. Once the last kid—Ron—joins the playroom, Evans and Snape head over as well. Snape doesn’t look happy about the scene.
See? James smirks. They like me. Way more than they like you.
Snape scowls. James can almost hear what he’s thinking.
‘Is that a challenge?’
Yes, James decides. Yes, it is.
***
Severus sticks close to Lily.
Potter has made a habit of catching his eye every time a child so much as laughs at whatever act he had currently put on. For what reason, Severus is unsure. Is this a taunt? A challenge? Admittedly, it is grating to see Potter hogging the spotlight even now. He thought he had escaped this for the summer. Apparently not.
Severus leaves Lily and Potter to corral the children to the lunch tables as he goes to fetch the pre-made lunch trays from the back room. Lily meets him as he re-enters, helping him distribute the plates of mac-and-cheese to each eager child.
The children are just settling in when Tony Stark arrives.
He’s brought along a robot—apparently named DUM-E—that follows behind him. Immediately, the children are taken by his presence; or, more accurately, by the robot that has taken to rolling up to each child and using its arm to curiously poke at each of them. It takes far too much time to get them back in their seats to finish their meal.
It’s only when Tony Stark tells DUM-E to wait in the back room until lunch is finished, and subsequently tells the children the robot won’t be returning until they’ve finished eating, do they settle back down in their chairs. Though, they are noticeably eating faster. Severus wanders back to Lily’s side, lowering his voice so Stark can’t hear him.
“I didn’t think Tony Stark would show up personally. Doesn’t he have multiple businesses?”
“He did this last year too,” Lily whispers back. “He’s very involved.”
“I see…” Severus scans the room. “On the topic of showing up. Where has Potter gone off to?”
***
James walks in fifteen minutes later, with a big box in his hands.
“What’s in the box?” Lily asked.
James brushed off the question, not wanting any word of his plan to win the kids over to get out to Tony—Tony Stark was here, huh—or Snape. “Nothing much, just some things I made for the kids to play with.”
“I do hope you don’t plan to make a habit of abandoning the daycare,” Snape says.
James rolls his eyes. “I didn’t abandon anything. You were on lunch.”
“The children were having lunch. You need to be here to aid in monitoring them.”
“Well, it looks like the kids are just fine, so—”
“Enough,” Lily cuts in. James and Snape quiet immediately.
It doesn’t stop James from sending Snape a smirk as he carried the box into the big playroom and set it down on the floor, off to the side so it wouldn't be noticed.
The kids would love it, James is sure.
***
James waits until the kids have wandered back from the lunch tables to the playroom.
“Okay, who wants to play a game?” James asked, catching the attention of Peter and Harry, who in turn got the attention of the other kids. “I have a magic box over here and whatever you want will come out if you ask and perform the special spell.”
“Can–Can I try? Harry asked. James nodded and pulled to box out from under a nearby table and placed it in front of Harry. “All you have to do is point at the box and say ‘abracadabra,’ okay? Then I can reach inside and hand you what you wanted.” James explained.
Harry nodded excitedly.
This would be way cooler if he had a wand, James lamented. He’ll have to find something outside later.
Harry pointed at the box and said, “A-ava-da-k-ke-da-vra.”
At that moment, Lily walked in with a brush, some rainbow colored hair ties and other clips and things for hair.
“Who wants me to braid their hair?” Lily asks, interrupting James’s attempt to gain favor from the kids.
Harry, Peter, Hermione, and Ron all look toward Lily, curious about the rainbow of color coming from the things for the new activity. Hermione comes over first, her bushy hair bouncing as she practically runs over intrigued.
Lily sits down and Hermione sits in front of her facing towards where everyone else is. As Lily starts braiding Hermione’s hair, she hums an unrecognizable tune. The rest of the kids, noticing what Lily is doing with Hermione's hair, run over and watch Lily attentively.
“Me next,” MJ says, wanting to get her hair done as well.
“Me too!” Harry adds right after.
Peter nods vigorously in agreement.
“Sev, Why don't you let the kids do your hair while they wait?” Lily asks. Severus sends Lily a look that says I did not sign up for this. Lily adds, “C’mon, it will be fun.”
Severus walks over and sits down, albeit a little reluctantly, next to Hermione who is almost done getting her french braids.
Twenty minutes later, Peter and Harry sport matching hairstyles, MJ’s fishtail braid is done, and Hermione has two perfect looking french braids.
Lily smiles at him, basking in the kids’ favor.
James huffs from the side that he’d been relegated to.
Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?
James narrows his eyes at her. Game on.
***
After Lily had finished braiding the children’s—and his—hair, she left for the back to continue preparations. Severus would have preferred she left him to do the work in the back while she entertained the children, but alas. Here he was, partnered up with Potter to keep the children busy. Potter was insufferably smug at every scrap of attention the children offered to him.
Severus was not content to leave that be.
He could capture the children’s attention just as well as Potter could. No, he could do better than that. And hardly needed to make a fool of himself during the process, either. It was like he had told Lily earlier: children were easy to entertain.
He grabbed a book off the shelf. Simple.
***
Lily was nearly done readying the trays before her.
She could hear the antics from the playroom, even from here. Sev and James were escalating into more extravagant measures to keep the kids’ attention. Meanwhile, the kids, for their part, seemed to be more entertained by the competition than what either of them were doing individually.
Lily wonders when they’d pick up on that.
Not for a while, she guesses, considering how determined both of them were trying to ‘win’ the kids’ favor. James had left the room again, likely off to fetch something else after his ‘magic box’ hadn’t worked. Severus was keeping the kids busy with different books in the meantime. He had a good reading voice, she would give him that.
Excited laughter sounded from the playroom. That must be James returning with his newest attention-grabbing tactic in a bid to win their unofficial competition to be the favorite.
How adorable, thinks Lily.
Especially since she would be the winner.
***
James re-entered the colorful preschool classroom, meeting Snape’s eyes from across the room. Depressingly, the kids were still enraptured by his storytelling, huddled together on the rug in the middle of the play area as Snape continued to read from the book.
But not for much longer, thinks James, inwardly smirking.
He walks up to the group, circling around them to both grab the kids’ attention and stand behind Snape. Already, they were looking at him with curiosity. Snape had paused in his storytelling—out of interest or frustration, James didn’t care—though he had not shut the book he’d been reading aloud.
“Hey kiddos! Who wants to see some magic?” James announces, waving his ‘wand’—a decent looking stick he’d just grabbed from outside—theatrically.
His cousin was the first to react.
“Me! Me!” Harry shouts, scrambling to his feet.
“Just Harry?” James pretends to pout. “What about the rest of you? Don’t you want to see some magic too?”
Peter was quick to join on the excitement, pulling Ned up with him. James could hear Snape let out a huff, and James’s grin grew wider. Harry was bouncing on his feet now. The rest of the kids were wide-eyed with interest as well.
“Alright then,” James dropped to a slight crouch, as if about to share a secret. He had a handful of leaves stuffed into his sleeve and he was sure the kids would find it to be a cute trick to ‘make them appear.’ “Are you ready?”
“Yeah!” was the collective cry.
“Really ready?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay. Watch closely—”
“Woah!” shouts Ned, distracted by something behind James. Peter runs ahead, right past James, and Harry follows quickly after. A moment later, all the kids have lost interest in him, dashing right past him to Tony Stark, who’d just entered the room with a type of drone hovering by.
Ron gasps. “That’s wicked!”
“That’s not all,” says Stark. “Watch this.”
The drone changes colors, flashing red-and-gold LEDs, before playing music. Harry tries to make a grab at it, but it swoops just out of reach of his extended hands, circling around the group of kids, who are spinning around and trying to keep the drone in their sights.
“Seriously?” James mutters under his breath.
It’s not that interesting—of course kids are going to be attracted by lights and colors! Still, Tony meets his eyes over the kids’ heads with a victorious smile, and James gets a sense of deja vu. He’s pretty sure he can feel Snape’s smug expression from behind him. Well, jokes on him, because the kids aren’t paying attention to Snape either.
James walks over, prepared to recapture their attention, when Lily Evans walks though the side door. There’s a tray of snacks in her hands and a serene smile on her face.
“Snack time, everyone!”
At once, Stark finds himself abandoned as the kids flock to Lily, who is kneeling down to be at eye-level with the kids. She begins distributing each portion, chatting with each of them as they receive a bowl. Harry eagerly accepts his snack, eyes shining with adoration. Even MJ, usually so reserved, appears to be enchanted by her.
Snape takes that moment to walk up from behind him, the book he’d been entertaining the kids with tucked under his arm. “Looks like your tricks weren’t quite enough, Potter.”
James sighs, more resigned than frustrated. “Yeah, yeah. Lily’s the favorite.”
“It’s not over yet,” says Stark, then raises his voice to get the kids’ attention. “Enjoy your snacks, kiddos! But after that, it’s back to the fun stuff!”
A few turned heads is all Stark gets in acknowledgement before the kids’ attention is back on Lily again. She glances over at the three of them. For a moment, her smile turns mischievous. She winks. Then, she’s engaging the children again like nothing is amiss.
Sneaky little—ugh. James runs a hand through his hair. It was well-played. They were out-played. It certainly didn’t look like the kids would be pulled away from Lily any time soon. Still, he wasn’t too upset about it. Despite their competition, James was just happy to see the joy on the kids’ faces.
Besides, he had the rest of the summer to change the tides.
Tomorrow, James decides. He’d be the favorite tomorrow.
(He is not the favorite tomorrow.)